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Please read FYI

This is a little lenghy, but I think important. I wasn't aware of the toxicity of grapes and raisins. This week I had the first case in history of raisintoxicity ever seen at MedVet. My patient wasa 56-pound 5 yr old male neutered lab-mixthat ate half-a-canister of raisins sometimebetween 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM on Tuesday. Hestarted with vomiting, diarrhea and shaking about1 AM on Wednesdaybut the owner didn't call my emergency service until 7 AM (6 hrs later).

I had heard somewhere about raisins ANDgrapes causing acute Renal failure but hadn'tseen any formal paper on thesubject. Wehad her bring the dog in immediately. In themeantime, I called the ER service at MedVet,and the doctor there was like me - had heardsomething about it, but... Anyway, wecontacted the ASPCA National Animal PoisonControl Center and they saidto give IV fluidsat 1 & 1/2 times maintenance and watch thekidney values for the next 48-72 hours. The dog's BUN (blood urea nitrogen) level wasalready at 32 (normal less than 27) and hiscreatinine was over 5 (1.9 is the high end of normal).Both are monitors of kidney function in thebloodstream. We placed an IV catheter andstarted the fluids. Rechecked the renal valuesat 5 PM and the BUN was over 40 and creatinineover 7 with no urine production after a liter offluids. At that point I felt the dog was in acuterenal failure and sent him on to MedVet for aurinary catheter to monitor urine output overnightas well as overnight care. He started vomiting again overnight at MedVetand his renal values continued to increasedaily. He produced urine when given lasix as adiuretic. He was on 3 different anti-vomitingmedications and they still couldn't control hisvomiting. Today his urine output decreasedagain, his BUN was over 120, his creatinine wasat 10, his phosphorus was very elevated and hisblood pressure, which had been staying around150, skyrocketed to 220 ... He continued to vomitand the owners elected to Euthanize.

This is a very sad case - great dog, great ownerswho had no idea raisins could be a toxin. Please alert everyone you know who has a dog ofthis veryseriousrisk.Poison control said as few as 7 raisins or grapes couldbe toxic. Many people I know give their dogs grapesor raisins as treats including our ex-handler's. Anyexposure should give rise to immediate concern.è Chocolate, cocoa, onions, avocadoes and macadamia nuts canbe fatal, too. Add to this - rising bread dough, caffeine and alcoholand you have the list of the greatest food dangers for dogs!!

Thank you for posting this. It is so important to remind ourselves. And one rule I always have, when in doubt, call the vet! Most vets will answer a lot right over the phone, better safe than sorry. I know two weeks ago, Brooklyn at e whole beet salad of mine. Instead of wondering or googling in confusion, I just rang up the vet to talk about toxicity in any of the ingredients (she was fine). Always good to just stay aware.

Yes, this story has been circulating on the internet for a couple of years now, and we have posted some warnings in the past. It is actually true, according to www.snopes.com (always a good idea to double check passed-around internet letters at Snopes, as many of these things are actually not true! ). Snopes on this story (and worth reading as there's much additional (and scary) detail): http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/raisins.asp

My own vets have never encountered a fatal case but say it is better to be safe than sorry,and that vulnerability seems to vary by individual dog.
When my cavalier Leo got onto a table and ate the top layer off a brack a while ago (an Irish bread full of raisins... a friend had left a chair pulled out but was really my fault for ever leaving a brack there even for a a nanosecond) I took him to the vet to induce vomiting. He could have been fine -- but I'd rather be safe than lose an adored dog by trying to save a vet fee and take the risk. I was glad I brought him in as he (eventually... ) brought up a huge amount of raisins .

Vets do not really understand the exact nature of this type of toxicity and fortunately it probably will not be a problem in small amounts for most dogs but I'd not hesitate to address it as an emergency if anyone has a dog eat a number of grapes or raisins.

I also read somewhere that some vets think the toxicity levels could be cumulative -- eg if you let the dogs eat grapes/raisins over time, they could reach a toxic level.